Golfers tend to be sensitive to the “feel” of a golf club. The “feel” of a golf club includes the combination of various component parts of the club and various features associated with the club that produce the sensations experienced by the player when a ball is swung at and/or struck. Club weight, weight distribution, swing weight, aerodynamics, swing speed, and the like all may affect the “feel” of the club as it swings and strikes a ball. “Feel” also has been found to be related to the sound produced when a club head strikes a ball to send the ball in motion. If a club head makes an unpleasant, undesirable, or surprising sound at impact, a user may flinch, give up on his/her swing, decelerate the swing, lose his/her grip, and/or not completely follow-through on the swing, thereby affecting distance, direction, and/or other performance aspects of the swing and the resulting ball motion. User anticipation of this unpleasant, undesirable, or surprising sound can affect a swing even before the ball is hit.
The performance of a golf club can vary based on various factors, including weight distribution about the head, which affects the location of the center of gravity of the golf club head. When the center of gravity is positioned behind the point of engagement on the contact surface, the golf ball follows a generally straight route. When the center of gravity is spaced to a side of the point of engagement, however, the golf ball may fly in an unintended direction and/or may follow a route that curves left or right including ball flights that often are referred to as “pulls,” “pushes,” “draws,” “fades,” “hooks,” or “slices.” Similarly, when the center of gravity is spaced above or below the point of engagement, the flight of the golf ball may exhibit more boring or climbing trajectories, respectively. Similarly, other factors such as point of impact and launch angle can also affect how the ball travels once it has been struck.
Accordingly, club heads may be formed with various configurations to provide different performance characteristics and “feels.” For example, club heads can be configured to have different weights secured thereto to alter the performance characteristics and “feel” of the club. In other club heads, a component having a characteristic with a particular value, e.g., size or weight, can be replaced with another component having a different value for that characteristic. By varying the body components of a club head, its performance and “feel” can be altered.
It would be desirable to provide a golf club and golf club head that reduces or overcomes some or all of the difficulties inherent in prior known devices.